


What LJ Knows Now

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Prison Break
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 01:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10583958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: LJ's thoughts, post season three.





	

He remembers when he was small he only saw his dad once in a while. But Lincoln would bring presents when he came—the only one he recalls now is a stuffed teddy bear—and that seemed so special, it made it all right somehow.  
  
Then he got older, and he was allowed to go to his dad’s house for visits, and he loved that because he got to sleep in the bed with Lincoln, and that was a big kid thing to do. His dad’s bed was huge, and often LJ would fall into giggling fits because his dad would fart under the blankets and then flap them to get rid of the smell.  
  
He can remember lots of times when he awoke in the dark, frightened by the sounds of the city outside the windows of his father’s apartment, but then he would reach out and his hand would find his dad’s back, or the warmth of his embrace if Lincoln also woke. He would be tucked securely into the safety of arms much thicker and stronger than his own, and he knew nothing could get him as long as his dad was there.  
  
In the intervening years when he had so much anger and disgust in his heart every time he thought about his father while he sat in Fox River Penitentiary, LJ didn’t allow himself to remember the good things. It was much easier to just focus on all the bad, because there was so very much bad.  
  
In the end, though, his father’s embrace was the one thing he brought to his mind when he felt certain they would kill him, when he succumbed to the idea that no matter how hard his dad and Uncle Mike tried, they just wouldn’t be able to save him. He knew what both of them would have said to him in those darkest moments.  
  
 _Have a little faith_.  
  
But when Sara was taken away, he’d forgotten about faith and instead willed the universe to make sure his dad knew he loved him, and that his best memories of him were all that he cared about now. There was no room for bitterness or your standard enmity of parents and children. LJ let it all go, and in doing so found that when he was in fact reunited with his father, everything had changed.  
  
But only for the better.  
  
Now, when his dad asks him to do something, he gets right up and does it. Now, when his dad has a moment and offers advice, he makes a mental note. Now, when his dad gets home from work every day, LJ hugs him.  
  
He’s often surprised by the depth of emotion in his father’s eyes, but he knows they both have grown to see things differently. There are still times when he wakes in the night, frightened by the past that comes to him in his dreams, and his father is there again to protect him and tell him he’ll make it through.  
  
Now, he believes it every time.


End file.
